David Jessop, Contributor
A WEEK OR so after the Easter break, Caribbean foreign ministers, five British ministers and a wide range of senior officials from the region and Britain will meet in Barbados at the fifth United Kingdom/Caribbean Forum.
This biennial event, which alternates between the U.K. and the Caribbean, is intended to enable Britain and the English-speaking part of the region to discuss issues of mutual concern.
Previous fora have been held in the Bahamas in 1998, in London in 2000, in Georgetown in 2002 and, again, in London in 2004.
The concept of a regular exchange to review progress and advance common objectives on issues of joint interest and concern began when Britain's new Labour Government came to power.
Then, the U.K. Government effectively ended until their restoration in 2003, the informal U.K./Caribbean Prime Minis-terial caucuses that had taken place at or around the time of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings.
Meetings of the U.K./Carib-bean Forum have tended to involve formal exchanges, but the objective this year, it seems, is to find ways to encourage a direct debate about the challenges facing the Caribbean.
To achieve this, the conference is expected to hear challenging remarks from Caribbean and British speakers before ministers from both sides discuss the issues raised in a closed session without officials or others being present.
Taken at face value, the formal agenda at this year's forum is anodyne and focussed on just two topics: international develop-ments affecting the Caribbean economy and on security.
But this broad subject matter hides a complex range of issues that both sides feel need to be addressed.
FACILITATING CHANGE
In the U. K., there is a sense that it has moved on. Britain and the outlook of the British people has changed, the cold war ended any politically strategic role that the Caribbean had and the U.K.'s priorities that applied when the region went to independence have all but disappeared.
Today, Britain sees its role in the Caribbean as facilitating change and adaptation to a world of open markets, private sector led development, and encou-raging awareness of the role of fast growing service sectors such as tourism in development.
Only security, overseas territories and perhaps the diaspora remain issues that touch the U.K. directly.
As one of 25 in the European Union, London offers help in having other European member states understand the need for adequate transitional and development support, but is no longer prepared to invest the political capital in defending Caribbean economic interests that do not meet with its world view.
ALIENATION
In the Caribbean, there is a feeling that Britain has abandoned the region, no longer recognises the past, is more inclined to Africa, has ceded responsibility for much of the special relationship to Europe and is inclined to solutions that are of benefit to the U.K. rather than to the development of the region.
This manifests itself in strong language of the type used at the last Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta when Caribbean heads accused Prime Minister Blair of having betrayed the Caribbean over sugar.
There is also a much deeper and lingering sense of alienation resulting from Britain having joined the United States in invading Iraq.
This event is still seen by many in Government in the region as a challenge to their strongly held belief in the inviolate nature of national sovereignty and as having ended the moral divide between Washington and London that they had previously found helpful.
URGENT ISSUES
At earlier fora, these differences manifested them-selves through a polite and formal dialogue between friends and there was little in the way of subsequent movement or joint response to the commonly acknowledged challenges facing the region. But this year may be different for a number of closely-related reasons. There are live issues that cannot just be the subject of rhetoric.
There is an urgent need to accelerate and facilitate investment into the new Caribbean economy as a result of the attenuation of preferential arrangements for primary agriculture and sugar in particular.
Across the region, the security situation is deteriorating and threatens Caribbean people and visitors alike.
And there is real concern about the Caribbean's readiness to deliver the Cricket World Cup 2007 on time and securely in all venues and the political and economic implications of failure.
These are matters that are occurring now that vividly illustrate the need for a common approach that involves practical support from the U.K. and rapid movement from the Caribbean.
The forum takes place against a background of renewed interest in the region.
Washington is awake to the region and looking at a wide range of issues from security though to the possibility of a Caribbean/U.S. free trade arrangement, if as seems likely the Doha Round and the Free Trade Area of the Americas do not progress.
Spain, it seems, is encouraging economic penetration of the Anglophone Caribbean by its business community and is beginning to think strategically about the region within its overall hemispheric strategy.
Europe has as a whole has produced a long-term policy paper on the region and China, Brazil and India have become active and potentially important alternative partners.
NEW THINKING NEEDED
The U.K./Caribbean Forum was established as a means of strengthening and institution-alising the close relationship enjoyed by the U.K. and the Caribbean.
On each occasion, the event has taken stock of a wide spectrum of issues relevant to both sides, but action has been largely absent.
For both Britain and the English-speaking Caribbean, this encounter should be about recognising that while there will always be a special bond, new thinking is needed that recognises that there is a vibrant new Caribbean economy that require nurturing and integrating with the older economy; that the response to challenges must be in real time; and that institutions on both sides of the Atlantic must be able to deliver practical outcomes.
David Jessop is the director of the Caribbean Council and can be contacted at david.jessop@caribbean-council.org.
